Online Learning Journal Volume 19, Issue 5 - December 2015

Volume 19,
Issue 5 -
December 2015

Introduction

Anissa Lokey-Vega and Michael K. Barbour – Guest Editors

Within the past four years all 50 states and the District of Columbia have developed significant online learning opportunities for K-12 students (Watson, Murin, Vashaw, Gemin, & Rapp, 2013). K-12 online student enrollments in the US have grown from approximately 40,000 to more than four million in a period of...

“When We Talk About Compliance, It’s Because We Lived It” - Online Educators’ Roles in Supporting Students with Disabilities

Mary Frances Rice University of Kansas

Richard Allen Carter, Jr. University of Kansas

As participation in online learning grows, so do concerns around the ways in which students with disabilities are served in virtual school programs, both full and part-time. At the crux of this struggle is the way in which federal and state laws (many of which were incepted before online learning...

An Examination of an Online Tutoring Program’s Impact on Low-Achieving Middle School Students’ Mathematics Achievement

Shanan Chappell, Pamela Arnold, John Nunnery, and Melva Grant Old Dominion University

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the impact of synchronous online tutoring services on struggling middle school students’ mathematics achievement. The online tutoring was provided as a response to intervention (RTI) Tier 3 support (intensive, individualized intervention) in schools implementing a school-wide mathematics program that addresses...

Real-Time Virtual Teaching: Lessons Learned From a Case Study in a Rural School

Michael K. Barbour Sacred Heart University

Due to the challenges facing rural schools, many jurisdictions have resorted to the use of virtual school programs to provide curricular opportunities to their students. While the number of virtual schools that rely on synchronous instruction as a primary or significant method of delivery is quite small, there are some...

The Nature of Parental Engagement at an Online Charter High School

As enrollments in cyber charter schools grow, it becomes increasingly important to understand how parents engage in their students’ learning. Researchers have hypothesized that parental engagement is even more critical when online students learn from home, but few researchers have examined parents’ engagement behavior—especially parents of adolescent learners. In this...

Book Review - Handbook of Research on K-12 Online and Blended Learning

Editors Tom Clark and Michael Barbour assemble an array of research and case studies from some of today’s leading scholars in digital learning in this user-friendly compilation. With over 30 years of experience in online learning research between them, Clark and Barbour’s wisdom is evident in their choices of contributors...

Book Review: Online, Blended, and Distance Education: Building Successful Programs in Schools

Anne Roycroft, EdD Fuel Education

Editors Tom Clark and Michael Barbour assemble an array of research and case studies from some of today’s leading scholars in digital learning in this user-friendly compilation. With over 30 years of experience in online learning research between them, Clark and Barbour’s wisdom is evident in their choices of contributors...

UDL in Online College Coursework: Insights of Infusion and Educator Preparedness

Teacher education programs are increasing the use of online courses to train and prepare teachers. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework is one strategy used to effectively train and prepare special education teachers in the online learning environment. The purpose of this study was to examine participants’ perception of...

The purpose of this study was to develop an effective instrument to measure student readiness in online learning with reliable predictors of online learning success factors such as learning outcomes and learner satisfaction. The validity and reliability of the Student Online Learning Readiness (SOLR) instrument were tested using exploratory factor...

Planning for Online Education: A Systems Model

Anthony G. Picciano Graduate Center—City University of New York

The purpose of this article is to revisit the basic principles of technology planning as applied to online education initiatives. While not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the topic, the article is timely because many colleges and universities are considering the development and expansion of online education as...

Are There Metrics for MOOCS From Social Media?

Since “the year of the MOOC” in 2012, the effectiveness of massive open online courses (MOOCs) has been widely debated. Some argue that MOOCs are not an effective mode of instructional delivery because of low completion rates. In the interest of developing alternative indicators of performance this study draws from...